George Bernard Shaw

"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable man persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man."

Birthplace

Dublin, Ireland

Education

Completed his formal education at the Dublin English Scientific and Commercial Day School, but then threw himself into two years of autodidactism at the British Museum.

Other jobs

He became a junior clerk at 16 ("Of all the damnable waste of human life that ever was invented, clerking is the worst"), and later worked as a journalist and critic.

Did you know?

As part of his argument for phonetic spelling, he was fond of pointing out that 'fish' could reasonably be spelt 'ghoti' - gh as in trough, o as in women, ti as in station.

Critical verdict

Shaw's early plays were not well received; it was not until John Bull's Other Island in 1904 that his work began to gain widespread popularity. Playwright, critic and social reformer, his plays are ironic examinations of contemporary moral problems. He wrote more than 50 plays, and continued to work into his 90s, living proof of the benefits of vegetarianism and chocolate. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1925 for Saint Joan, but refused the money ("Nobel Prize money is a lifebelt thrown to a swimmer who has already reached the shore in safety"). He is considered by some to be the most significant playwright since Shakespeare.

Recommended works

Pygmalion; Saint Joan; Man and Superman

Influences

Now read on

Search out The Intelligent Woman's Guide to Socialism and Capitalism (1928) and the unusual novella The Adventures of the Black Girl in her Search for God (1932). And don't forget The George Bernard Shaw Vegetarian Cookbook (ed Dorothy Bates), with all the great man's favourite recipes.